What does Apples future hold for us?

Judging by the ever accelerating pace of technology development, where do we hope/expect Apple to be in 10yrs time in terms of hardware and software?

If you just take user experience into account, with aspects such as 3D and touchscreen interfaces now relatively commonplace in the consumer market, have we reached a developmental plateau, or is this just the beginning?

At the time when leaf springs where designed in car suspension, everybody thought that was it, things can't go any further... how wrong was that.

If I were Steve Jobs, my first order of business would be to turn the ipod nano into watch like a Sony Ericcson Liveviewhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KN2qoA0FfHQ
Then I'd make a modification store for iOS devices so iOS users could make changes to the set up of their phone without worrying about a compromised user experience.
I'd buy a controlling stake in Sony and make the iPhone+PSP, make the best TVs and other electronics, and put Apple TV+Playstation+Tivo. Create an Apple version of Ford Touch for other brands.
Buy a controlling stake in Tivo.
Buy TAT. http://www.youtube.com/user/TATMobileUI?blend=2&ob=1
Work on dictation.
Buy Twitter and make it more useful than Facebook.

Those who are rich and "Have" EVERYTHING Apple, not to mention the very latest - a computer, iPhone/iPad, iPod, etc...

Those who have NOT - can't afford or don't have anything Apple...

And the "rest of us" who may only have 1 or two things (or all older stuff bought used) like a Windows Machine with an old iPhone, or a MacBook and an Android Phone, etc...

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I don't see why this has anything to do with the future development in Apple's technology, this has always been the case has it not? There will always be people with more money than others and can afford higher end products, there always has been and there always will be.

I don't see why this has anything to do with the future development in Apple's technology, this has always been the case has it not? There will always be people with more money than others and can afford higher end products, there always has been and there always will be.

One thing is for certain: increasingly usable tech, brought to you by Apple.

Simplify, simplify, simplify, then beautify in terms of interface, interaction, and work environment. Do more with less effort. This has always been Apple's goal and they'll continue to achieve this in spades. Lion and the blurring of lines between the iPad and Apple's notebook line brings us a lot further down this road. If you watch Apple's teaser about Lion you'll see exactly what the future holds, at least for the next 2-3 years. Use those ideas as a springboard for further speculation.

Apple's roadmap for the next couple of years is great news for everyone. And who knows, they might just reveal another surprise product that will shake up an existing market once again, or create a new one. They do that a lot. Apple is empowering both users and developers. We're already at Photoshop/pseudo-Photoshop on the iPad. It's a question of "when" - not "if" - we'll be running high-powered Pro apps on the next iterations of that device. Sooner than you think. Apple is way ahead of everyone else in all the key areas of growth in the tech market. The results: tech that folks actually *want* to use and get excited about.

The next few years will be awesome for everyone who enjoys Apple products. And that's putting it mildly.

Recently went to a Mac Store to buy the Mac Book Pro weighing all the options. Yes the Air was the draw as I have been a PC user. The new i7 was intriguing. It dawned on me to go with 15 2.83 i7 8 mb w/ 185 SSD. The started thinking about the Air. I think their is a really good chance that Apple will do a major revision to the look of the Mac Book Pros to look much more like the Airs at least move to SSD being standard and soldered in. No disk drives, of course faster, of course thinner.

The Air will be the Apple net book on steroids with the Ipad being the real Net book option. The iTouch and the iPod will become one and be their wifi alternatives for the iPhone hold outs.

My take on Apple Care--they pay bonuses on how many of those are sold in the Apple stores and not necessary --especially as we move to SSDs and external drives.

My two cents. Oh and I will wait to April 2011 to leap once this next line of Pros hit.

Recently went to a Mac Store to buy the Mac Book Pro weighing all the options. Yes the Air was the draw as I have been a PC user. The new i7 was intriguing. It dawned on me to go with 15 2.83 i7 8 mb w/ 185 SSD. The started thinking about the Air. I think their is a really good chance that Apple will do a major revision to the look of the Mac Book Pros to look much more like the Airs at least move to SSD being standard and soldered in. No disk drives, of course faster, of course thinner.

The Air will be the Apple net book on steroids with the Ipad being the real Net book option. The iTouch and the iPod will become one and be their wifi alternatives for the iPhone hold outs.

My take on Apple Care--they pay bonuses on how many of those are sold in the Apple stores and not necessary --especially as we move to SSDs and external drives.

My two cents. Oh and I will wait to April 2011 to leap once this next line of Pros hit.

Ilop

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Just a note: Don't use the iTouch word around here. Some people freak out over that.

Anyway, I do see Apple moving to lock down hardware and software. More soldered components that the end user can't upgrade or replace while iOS and OSX eventually merge, brining a totally close OS environment. Welcome to the Brave New World.

Just a note: Don't use the iTouch word around here. Some people freak out over that.

Anyway, I do see Apple moving to lock down hardware and software. More soldered components that the end user can't upgrade or replace while iOS and OSX eventually merge, brining a totally close OS environment. Welcome to the Brave New World.

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<So I should not wait get the 15in i7, 2.8GHz, 4 GB, 500 ata @5400--giving me the most flexibility and speed so--I can ride this out a bit longer that the 3-5 yr typical lifespan?

<So I should not wait get the 15in i7, 2.8GHz, 4 GB, 500 ata @5400--giving me the most flexibility and speed so--I can ride this out a bit longer that the 3-5 yr typical lifespan?

iLop:

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I don't know. If you play the waiting game, you can end up waiting forever and never getting anything. I tend to believe if you need a new machine and have the money, go ahead and get one. If you keep waiting for the next revision, you won't get anything. With some upgrades down the road, you can keep using it for quite a while. I have a 5 year old Powerbook at home and a 3 year old Macbook Pro at work.

I'm not sure why everyone gets all bent out of a shape over the new iOS-like Launchpad feature. It's not all that different from the default Applications stack that shipped with 10.5 Leopard.

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It's actually better. It's just a better organization of apps. I don't think people are taking into account that there is going to be an explosion in the number of applications for Mac now. I already try to keep only my most favorite apps in the dock because I hate clutter and use spotlight to find the rest.

It's actually better. It's just a better organization of apps. I don't think people are taking into account that there is going to be an explosion in the number of applications for Mac now. I already try to keep only my most favorite apps in the dock because I hate clutter and use spotlight to find the rest.

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Exactly this, look at the 3rd icon in from the left on the dock in the above picture. This appears to be the 'App' icon, which I would imagine works exactly the same as the Dashboard feature, where once it's clicked the desktop is inactive, and will reactivate again once an App is selected or the 'blank' area is clicked.
And I agree, this will lead to an explosion of free or small fee apps being developed for purchase and download in a MacApp Store.

However, apart from the App Store, I don't see anything ground breaking in this, it's just a slight development of the Stacks idea, where you can click one icon to access lots of applications. Only this time your screen is inactive rather than a new window or 'fan' of icons.
There also appears to be pages of apps, which would suggest further use of gestures with the trackpad/magic mouse - how far can they take this? Surely there are only a certain amount of gestures that can be used, also too many will lean towards making parts of the OS confusing maybe?

It's actually better. It's just a better organization of apps. I don't think people are taking into account that there is going to be an explosion in the number of applications for Mac now. I already try to keep only my most favorite apps in the dock because I hate clutter and use spotlight to find the rest.

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Exactly. While the Dock is great for your most used applications, Mac OS X has never had a decent application launcher. The Finder is too cumbersome. I use Spotlight, but that's probably not the obvious choice for regular users. Mac users have had to rely on third-party utilities like Overflow, Quicksilver and Launchbar.

Staff Member

Bet on. You have no idea and that was a blind guess. The next version of Windows may be mind blowing and a million miles from OS X and iOS for all you and myself know.

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Agreed, even Ballmer has stated that win8 is going to be a departure to what is expected. This may be good, this may be not so good. At this point, its a little too early to say how win8 will be shaping up.

I think Apple's next big 'thing' will be some sort of cloud based / partly cloud based OS for the iDevices. Think Citrix on a iPhone. All your app's will be stored in the cloud, music will be served from their servers and streamed.

either this or a google type service of mail / ilife / iwork in the cloud.

They've got to be doing something with those big data centres.

Either way I can't see it being good for the consumer but more of a control thing.

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